Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-15

"" oonSue, Ii sClll an unsOlved rid.
o4e-woman. What is her place in the
world and what shall be done with
her? ->
In solemn conclave the matter has
received most solemn consideration. In
legislative halls her place has been
found and she is relegated to it. From
pulpit and press she has been notified
that there is no longer any question re-
specting the limit of her sphere, but,
alas, like the revolving earth, which
brings the sun staring us in the face at
each decimal revolution, with the i'm
pressible subject which it most con-
Germs, there comes the still unsettled
question, "What is her place." and
when is it found for her. "Why doesn't
she stay in it?" From the beginning it
was not as now. Time was when
women were keepers at home" and
accepted the teachings of their self-con-
stituted tutors, obeying as literally as
though the intellect and the reason
with which God had endowed them had
been thing in which they had 40 part
or interest. and for the use of which
they had no responsibility. Ecclcsias-
tical law, much of which had its origin
i'll the darkness of semi-heathenism,
and the usages based upon these laws
have endeavored to fasten upon all time
and all beings these enactments, con-
ceived in ignorance, perpetuated in self
ishness, and attempting to subjugate
nature itself. The votaries of these
barbaric codes PROFOUND the question,
and then, in the arrogance of self-con-
stltuted Judge and jury, they propose
to settle forever woman's place, as the
subject slave of effete usage, of remote
and obsolete customs, and make her the
only thing in Gods universe that shall
stand still amid the movings of all ma
ture, amid the throes of new births,
amid the growths that necessitate
change, that throw off the old and take
on the new. Despite the conditions in
which woman has been kept, despite
habit, despite the happenings of the
most glorious Of her prerogatives, her
motherhood, and the limitations to
which this has subjected her under the
old regime, woman has long felt her
false position, and has herself formu-
lated the same questions; has asked
her own soul, has looked back into the
past, and, through her aspirations, has
peered out into the future, if, per-
chance she might descry any answer
ings to those aspirations. She has
felt, rather than known, that she is not
the sole exception to the universal law,
until at last she has dared to question
the validity of the claim Of those who
assume to speak as the "vicegerents of
Almighty God" and who say: "Be-
cause woman was first in the transgres-
sion she must be subject"
What is woman's place in the world :?
BY the fiat Of Almighty God her place
is where she can, to the fullest extent,
develop and use every faculty, every
function, every power and possibility
with which she has been endowed. Her
place is in every spot, in every condition,
where, by virtue of her endowment,
she can be or do. She may not dele
gate to another her duties; she may not
attempt to rid herself of her response
bilities by accepting vicarious relief.
She is a reasoning being, possessed Of
every faculty that belongs to the race,
and for the use Of these faculties she
must give account. Where is woman's
place in the world? Where is it not?
Where wrong is to be righted; where
evil is to be overcome; where ignor-
ance is to be enlightened; where inspir
alton is to flash light upon darkness;
where intuition is to point the way !;
where spirit is to interpret the letter;
where endurance is demanded; where
sympathy is to heal; where love is to
rule; where God is to speak, aye, where
hand, OF head, OF heart can achieve
there let woman be, for it is her place.
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